Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Certainly, we need to increase housing supply not only from the State but from the private sector. As the Deputy is aware, a range of domestic bodies and commentators have pointed to the need for output of somewhere between 30,000 and 35,000 units per annum. Pre-covid, the figure had increased to a little over 20,000. We are still a long way short of where we need to be.

The State will play its part in the delivery of housing - make no mistake about that. We are also going to play our part in supporting the private sector to deliver housing all over our country because that will be needed. The State cannot do it all on its own. We need to ensure adequate finance is available. We must ensure land is serviced and that zoned land becomes available for development. We have to try to remove the bottlenecks that exist and ensure that it is viable to build housing throughout the country. We have to ensure we invest in transport, climate action measures, education, healthcare and a wide range of other areas.

Deputy Farrell correctly identified that Project Ireland 2040 anticipates an increase in the population of our country by 1 million people in the coming 20 years. That underlines the scale of the challenge we face to provide the necessary infrastructure.

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